NORTHAMPTON — More than 8,000 blossoming bulbs will fill Smith College’s Lyman Conservatory with color at the annual Spring Bulb Show, this time with a new feature: artwork commissioned from three Smith College seniors.
Since the early 1900s, the bulb show has offered visitors an early glimpse into spring, with the smells and sights of flowering tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other flowers filling every nook of the greenhouse. This year, student artwork will complement the floral scene.
“I’m hoping this new feature will make our students more visible to the wider community outside of Smith,” said Lily Carone, greenhouse horticulturist at Smith, “and I’m hoping it is an empowering and enriching experience for our student community to see themselves reflected in the bulb show.”
The artwork, titled “Between Bloom and Breadth,” is placed along the center of the greenhouse. It is a three-part composition consisting of floating fish-like creatures, blue nets representing the sea, and a fountain inspired by daffodils. Each student artist created their own piece but wove their work into one theme.
“I really just want people to feel joy and wonder and [I] want to emphasize the beauty of the natural flowers around them,” said Wells, a student artist who uses just their last name. “I love the bulb show… To make it a little bit more special and magical for the community is a very fun opportunity.”
Wells designed the fountain, in the second room of the greenhouse, which they created using two separate tanks, steel outer rods bent to give the fountain an organic shape, and a thin marigold-yellow yarn wrapped around the steel rods.
Over in the other room, Benny Kleinman-Eddy set up his abstract fish hanging from a clear string. The fish are cyanotypes, a term that refers to a slow-reacting photographic type of printmaking process that requires a special light-sensitive dye. Kleinman-Eddy used plants from the garden to imprint patterns onto the fish.
“There a printing exposure phase where I laid out these plants on top of the fabric, but then I exposed it suddenly for around 45 minutes,” he said. “A lot of my work recently has been trying to find what’s the most abstracted form that looks alive… for this piece, it’s been really exciting to go from plant life to animal life and find the middle ground there.”
Underneath the floating abstract fish is a netted sea, which will soon be filled with blossoming flowers, inspired by the Greek myth of Narcissus.
“I wanted to put people in a space where they can appreciate the beauty of the flowers, but also the beauty of their own selves,” said Annie Uesugi, the artist who created the sea element.
The artists began conceptualizing their pieces in September and fabricated them starting in January.
Meanwhile, preparation for the bulb show itself began in October when student volunteers potted thousands of bulbs and placed them into cold storage to simulate winter. Then, starting in January, bulbs were taken out and moved to the greenhouses according to their various flowering times. The technique is called synchronized blooming and requires a careful balance of timing and temperature control.
Thousands of flowers will soon blossom within the greenhouse walls. The Spring Bulb Show, including the student artwork, will commence with an opening lecture at 7:30 on March 3, and the show will continue until March 19.